emacs-gpu/doc/emacs/anti.texi

@c -*- coding: utf-8 -*-
@c This is part of the Emacs manual.
@c Copyright (C) 2005--2021 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
@c See file emacs.texi for copying conditions.

@node Antinews
@appendix Emacs 27 Antinews
@c Update the emacs.texi Antinews menu entry with the above version number.

  For those users who live backwards in time, here is information
about downgrading to Emacs version 27.2.  We hope you will enjoy the
greater simplicity that results from the absence of many @w{Emacs
@value{EMACSVER}} features.

@itemize @bullet
@item
Emacs can no longer be built with support of native compilation of
Lisp programs.  This means Emacs builds much faster, and the problems
that came with native compilation: the need to have GCC and Binutils
installed, the complications of managing your @file{eln-cache}
directories---all of that is now future history.  The simplicity and
elegance of the Emacs byte-compiled code is now restored in all of its
pristine beauty.

@item
Emacs no longer builds by default with Cairo, even if it's present.
The warnings about not using HarfBuzz are also gone, in preparation
for complete removal of HarfBuzz support in previous Emacs versions.
Fancy text shaping and display is becoming less important as you move
back in time.  The @code{ftx} font backend is again part of Emacs, for
the same reasons.

@item
As Motif becomes more and more important with moving farther into the
past, we've reinstated the code which supports Motif in Emacs.

@item
Emacs once again supports versions 5.3 and older OpenBSD systems,
which will be needed as you move back in time.

@item
We've dropped support for Secure Computing filter on GNU/Linux.  The
past world is much more secure than the present, so the complexities
related with this stuff, which can only be explained by severe
paranoia, are no longer justified.

@item
Emacs reverted back to supporting Unicode 13.x, since the following
versions of the standards are not yet published where you are going.
The @samp{emoji} script and the support for displaying Emoji sequences
were removed for the same reasons: no one will produce them in the
past.

@item
Mode-specific commands and the @kbd{M-S-x} command that invokes them
were removed.  As you move back in time, the command set in Emacs
becomes smaller, so any such filtering of applicable commands just
gets in the way.

@item
We have removed the system for displaying documentation of groups of
related functions, the @kbd{shortdoc-display-group} command to go with
it, and the corresponding ``See also'' button in the @file{*Help*}
buffer.  That should make searching for certain functions simpler:
just use the venerable @samp{apropos} commands.

@item
The @code{context-menu-mode} was removed, and with it the context
menus popped by pressing the right mouse button.  This is one small
step towards freeing Emacs (and eventually, the whole world of
computing) from the tyranny of the GUI pointing devices in general,
and moving back to the simplicity of text-mode user interfaces.
Down with mice and other rodents!

@item
The commands @kbd{C-x 4 4} and @kbd{C-x 5 5} for displaying the
results in a new window/frame re gone.  We are quite certain that
creating a new window/frame before running a command is much simpler,
and doesn't require a complication of a new prefix.

@item
The behavior of active minibuffers when switching frames is now the
perfect mess it should be: sometimes the minibuffer moves to the new
selected frame, sometimes it doesn't, and sometimes you get an error.
This makes Emacs usage much more fun, as you get to guess the result,
instead of having it boringly consistent.

@item
Compact mode-line display mode has been removed.  The items displayed
on the mode line are now always in the same place, and if there's not
enough space for them, they are not displayed at all, instead of being
confusingly displayed in a different position.  You no longer need to
think twice where to find a particular mode-line element on display.

@item
Many commands and options related to tab bars were removed, including
(but not limited to) frame-specific appearance of tab bars, the
@code{tab-bar-format} option, the @kbd{C-x t n}, @kbd{C-x t N},
@kbd{C-x t M}, and @kbd{C-x t G} commands, and many mouse gestures on
the tab bar.  We are going to delete the tab bar support from Emacs in
one of the past versions, and this is a step in that direction.

@item
The ``transient'' input methods have been removed; use @kbd{C-\} to
turn input methods on and off instead.  This is in preparation for
complete removal of input methods from Emacs in version 19, and
consistent with the fact that the number of input methods we support
becomes smaller as you move back in time.

@item
We disabled @code{show-paren-mode} by default, since we think the
venerable @code{blink-matching-paren} feature is more than enough, and
better fits the simplicity of past Emacs versions.  It will definitely
be better when colors are removed from Emacs in the distant past.

For the same reason, sub-groups in interactive regexp searches are no
longer highlighted in distinct colors.

@item
On our permanent quest for simplifying Emacs, we've removed the Ispell
command @code{ispell-comment-or-string-at-point}; the old-time friend
@code{ispell-comments-and-strings} should suffice.

@item
Many Gnus commands and options were deemed to unnecessarily complicate
the use of Gnus (which is too complex to begin with), and thus were
removed.  This includes @code{gnus-topic-display-predicate},
@code{gnus-process-mark-toggle}, @code{gnus-registry-register-all},
@code{gnus-paging-select-next}, and many others.  The @code{nnselect}
backend was deleted for the same reason.

@item
The @file{project.el} package have been redesigned to remove many
unnecessary features, so that just the bare essentials remain.  We
plan on removing this package from Emacs in a previous version, but
decided to begin with removing some extra features first.

@item
To keep up with decreasing computer memory capacity and disk space, many
other functions and files have been eliminated in Emacs 27.2.
@end itemize